Kilnsey Show Doctor takes on Presidential Duties

New Kilnsey Show & Sports president Dr Peter
Whitehead says he is looking forward with great anticipation to this
year’s 121st annual highlight on Tuesday, August 28.

Dr Whitehead was elected to the post at the annual meeting of
Upper
Wharfedale Agricultural Society, long-time organisers of
one of the biggest and best-known one-day agricultural shows
in the country.

Pictured on the showfield at Kilnsey with the
famous crag in the background, are, from left, new president
Dr Peter Whitehead with his predecessor Dorothy Dean and Robert
Lambert, who is in his last year as chairman.

He takes over from Threshfield’s Dorothy
Dean, who has completed
her two-year term as president. “I have had the time of my life,”
she said.

Dr Whitehead, who lives in Skipton, already has a long-standing
association with Kilnsey
Show, having served as show doctor for
almost 25 years. He retired three years ago after a 30-year career
as a partner at Fisher Medical Centre in Skipton, where many farmers
were patients, though continues to do locum work at both Catterick
Garrison and in Northallerton.

Dr Whitehead, who will be handing over as show doctor to Dr Natalie
Curtis, who practises at surgeries in both Grassington and Ilkley,
also thanked his predecessor Mrs Dean for being “an outstanding president
and figurehead of an event that continues to shine the spotlight on
the outstanding skills of our regional agricultural communities, both
showcasing and championing the very best of farming, rural life, arts
and crafts.”

This year’s show also represents a milestone for local farmer Robert
Lambert, who will be serving his last year as chairman, a position
he has held since 2002. He was first elected to the show committee
in 1969, taking over as vice-chairman in 1998. Mr Lambert will continue
his long association with the show, having now been installed as president-elect.